Saban, Kelly have similar views on long layoff

Dec. 5, 2012
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University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, left, poses with Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly after a news conference Wednesday at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York. / Zef Nikolla, Associated Press

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

NEW YORK - Alabama and Notre Dame have begun dealing with the one negative that comes with playing for the BCS National Championship: The wait.

Notre Dame's regular season ended Nov. 24, when the Fighting Irish capped a perfect 12-0 season with a 22-13 win over USC. Alabama's regular season ended Saturday, when the Crimson Tide topped Georgia 32-28 to go 12-1 and win the SEC championship.

The two won't play again until Jan. 7 in Miami. By that point, Alabama will have gone 37 days without playing a game; Notre Dame will have gone 44 days.

"Many people have asked me how you carry the momentum over from the SEC Championship Game into the next game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Wednesday during an appearance with Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, his counterpart in the national title game. "And I think the answer to that is that you can't. You almost have to look at any bowl game, or any layoff like you have of this length of time, as the next game is sort of a one-game season."

As such, both teams will attempt to create what Kelly called a "camp-like" atmosphere, looking to replicate the run up to the season opener â?? and giving their players time to catch their breath â?? while still maintaining a heavy focus on the game itself.

"We try to work ourselves up to a routine," Kelly said. "There's that space there, with weight training and conditioning, some fundamental work, and then try to get back to that routine that they're all familiar with as we lead into the game."

Finding a routine won't be hard for Saban: the national championship game will mark his fourth BCS bowl appearance since becoming Alabama's coach in 2007 and his sixth overall. He is 4-1 in those games.

"It's the way we've done it for a long time," Saban said. "It's what our players expect. I'm not saying it's the right way to do it, but it's very difficult to carry the momentum of the season into a game that's that much time away."

In the meantime, over the month-plus interlude before Jan. 7, both coaches will try to keep their teams focused on day-to-day minutiae and not the extended break.

"I think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy if you keep talking about the long layoff," Kelly said. "We don't talk about that, we talk about what's the next step here, in the next stage towards the national championship."